Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not planning to extend visa the free entrance regime for 10 countries, Tengrinews reports.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not planning to extend visa the free entrance regime for 10 countries, Tengrinews reports.
“The pilot project providing visa free entrance for citizens of 10 countries was initiated on July 15. As a part of the project, citizens of these countries could stay in Kazakhstan for 15 days without needing to obtain a visa. We are not considering extension of the visa free entrance at this point,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Tengrinews.
A Foreign Ministry representative emphasised that the decision not to extend the visa free regime right away in no way meant that the regime would not be reintroduced in Kazakhstan in future.
The final decision will be made after the Ministry completes the analysis of the effect produced by the pilot project that lasted for 6 months this year during the heat of the tourist season.
Earlier this month, Kazakhstani Tourism Association suggested extending the project till October 2015. The head of association Rashida Shaikenova said that the project had a positive effect, since the number of tourists from these countries increased by 10%.
Citizens of the USA, Netherlands, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the UAE, South Korea and Japan could enter Kazakhstan without needing to get a visa.
Reporting by Roza Yessenkulova, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina